Rockets' inability to defend 3-point line cost them Game 3

Rockets' inability to defend 3-point line cost them Game 3

Too many open looks and too many opportunities from 3-point range for the Minnesota Timberwolves helped them avoid falling into a 0-3 hole against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.

While the Timberwolves certainly deserve credit for their solid 121-105 victory over the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, Houston’s inability to defend the 3-point line cost them dearly in this game.

Well, that and the fact that they were outscored 35-24 in the third quarter, and were never able to fully bounce back from it.

After Minnesota shot 27.8 and 34.8 percent from 3-point range in the first two games of the series, they not only tallied their most attempts from behind the arc (27) of the series but also drained a franchise record 15 of them, as the NBA’s official Twitter cited.

That means the Timberwolves nailed 55.6 percent of their shots from deep, while also making 50 percent of their total field goal attempts in Game 3.

The lack of defense around the 3-point line was evident as well, especially during the fourth quarter when the Rockets cut the Timberwolves lead down to nine with just under seven minutes remaining.

From that point, Jeff Teague converted an and-1, followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from Jimmy Butler and Teague to extend the lead up to 18 in the span of less than a minute.

Seven different Minnesota players connected from deep, while both Butler and Andrew Wiggins went 4-of-6 from outside and Teague made 3-of-5 attempts. The defense around the arc has to be better for Houston in Game 4, even if it’s unrealistic to expect the Timberwolves to hit anywhere close to this many threes in a single game moving forward.

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